How can I let go of stress?

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Let’s say you are feeling sad or tired or you are in physical pain. Is there a technique which enables you to let go of that stress? In this lesson, based on interviews with 250 top achievers, David Hyner – an international speaker, author, broadcaster and researcher on goal setting – explains the Sedona Method, as used by special forces if injured in the field.

Grant Leboff:So David, one of the things you talk about in the book is being able to let go of stress and you talk about the ‘Sedona Method’, which I thought was quite interesting. So could explain that to our audience?

David Hyner:The Sedona Method was taught to me by an emotional intelligence expert called Sanjay Shaw. He’s amazing. And he taught me a technique called The Sedona Method, then subsequently cropped up everywhere. Everywhere I went I was finding it, I even found people in special forces who were being taught to let go of pain, if they were injured in the field. It was a remarkable technique and it’s a way of us being able to mentally, physically and emotionally, let go of either feelings or physical pain. It’s a remarkable technique.

Grant Leboff:So how does it work?

David Hyner:Let’s just say, for example, physical pain. Let’s just say you’ve stubbed your toe. Have you ever banged your toe? It’s like ‘aaaghhh! and you tense up and you scrunch up. When we do that our muscles clench, nerve endings, blood vessels close down, limiting the flow of oxygen in the bloodstream. Now what we want to do is let go of that pain, and that the quickest way to relieve pain is to get blood circulating around so it actually relaxes the muscles and takes the pain away. But we instinctively clench and tense up, so it’s counter-intuitive to relax in pain, but if we learn to do it, the impact is profound Grant.

The Sedona Method works on three questions. The first question is could you let that go? The second question is would you let it go? And the third question is when? So let’s just say, hypothetically, you’ve just stubbed your toe – you go aaaghhh – You ask yourself; could I let that go? Now yeah, you’d love to let it go. So if you could would you? Yes of course we would. So if we would, when? Most of us would say well now, and all that we do is you take a deep breath… and we actually try to, even though it’s counter-intuitive, relax the area that’s in pain. And if we practice that enough, we find pain just dissipates. It’s an incredible technique. We can do the same with emotional feelings as well. So if we’ve got a feeling that’s not serving us – let’s just say – we’re feeling quite sad or tired, all we need to do is – in a quick context, because it’s quite a lengthy exercise to do it properly – quick context is to, maybe, hold a pen in our hand or even just clench our fist and imagine the pain moving. Let’s just have a pain or an emotional distress and have a tight chest. I imagine the pain moving down my shoulder, down my arm, I put it into my fist and I’m clenching my fist so tightly now that I can’t tell where the thing ends and my hand begins it just feels like a lump. And I say, could I let that go? Yes. Would I let it go? Yes. When? Now, and I take a deep breath…. [takes deep breath] and let it go. And sometimes that emotional or physical pain that was a 10 lowers down to maybe a four or five maybe only goes down by a one. That’s still a result. Sometimes only once or twice doing that exercise can remove quite intense emotional or physical pain and discomfort.

Grant Leboff:And in terms of that technique, how easy is it for people to learn? Because obviously, if you’re a master at it, it sounds like quite useful technique to have but is it something that’s easy to acquire?

David Hyner:Again it’s a bit of practice but it’s a very easy technique. I would challenge everyone watching this right now, the next time they stub their toe, to notice that they are clenched up and tense. Just to relax, deep breathe and just say ‘could I let it go?’ Would I let it go? When?’ [takes deep breath] A-n-d r-e-l-a-x . It’s counter-intuitive but by gosh it works.

There may be small changes to the spoken word in this transcript in order make it more readable.

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About David Hyner

Having interviewed over 250 top achievers to understand how they remain so effective and how they achieve their MASSIVE goals, David is an in demand speaker and trainer on the subject of “MASSIVE goals” and “Emotional resilience”. A multi-award winning speaker, presenting to between 10k-50k people globally each year, he shares his passion for helping us all to set and achieve our MASSIVE goals!